"You want me to do what?!"

The being before me just sighed. "I thought I'd made it clear. Do you want a whole powerpoint presentation…"

"You know what I meant." I cut in. "It's just so ridiculous that I can't believe it." The so called 'God' before me just stared at me in confusion.

"What's so hard to understand? I send you to a fantasy world that you only know from books and TV as one of its most hated characters and you live your life there. What's so hard to believe about that?"

I just stared back incredulously. "How about all of it? You know what, fine whatever, I don't care, but can you tell me why you are doing this?"

'God' just sighed. "Do you know how boring being around forever is? Really boring, so I try to do some things to spice it up every so often and you just happened to be the lucky contestant chosen to be my entertainment this time."

My mouth was probably hanging wide open in disbelief at the moment, but I didn't care. I mean imagine you'd just died and then been told all of this and it was only happening for the entertainment of some higher power. Exactly, so I decided to reply the only reasonable way in this situation.

"Sorry but I'm gonna have to give it a hard pass. I'm sure your position is very hard and all, but I just don't really feel like doing what you're asking me too. But no hard feelings, right?"

Seeing the grin that stretched across 'God's' face made me feel like that may not have been the smartest thing that I'd ever said, but come on, who has ever thought to prepare for a situation like this?

"Oh, this isn't a choice. You're going to Westeros whether you want to or not, but if you're maybe a bit nicer to me I could give you a little present to help you out." They told me.

Well when they said it like that it didn't really seem like I had a choice in the matter. Well guess I'll just have to try and make the best of a bad situation. "Alright I'll do it and try to make it as fun for you to watch as possible. Is that nice enough?"

They seemed to think for a second before replying, "Good enough."

"So, what do I get?" I asked.

"Oh, you'll find out on your second birthday. I'm sure it will crush your expectations." They said before bursting out laughing as if they'd just told the funniest joke ever.

"Wait I don't even get to know what it is? That's not..."

"Well, have fun and know that I'm always watching." 'God' said quickly before snapping his fingers and suddenly there was nothing.

Let me tell you, being born is not fun. There's a reason you don't remember being a baby. It's for the best. I don't think that there is anything more horrifying than being conscious and remembering your own birth. I don't want to ever think about it again, but just know that it was extremely traumatic.

"It is a boy, Your Grace." Were the words that caused me to open my eyes for the first time.

Looking around everything was blurry, I guess a new-born baby's eyesight isn't the best, but I could make out what looked like a man with a very large necklace around their neck holding me. Next to him was another with silvery platinum blonde hair, and finally laying on a bed was a woman with same colour hair.

So, I guess these are my parents' now.

I couldn't make out much of who I assumed were Aerys and Rhaella Targaryen with my current eyesight, but I could hear them well enough.

"Is he healthy? Will this one live?" Aerys demanded.

Wow how crazy this man is, is unbelievable. He already sounds pretty unstable and this is him before the Defiance. I guess it's understandable in this situation to be on edge given that none of my 'siblings' had survived for more than a few months at best since Rhaegar, but it was more than that. There was underlying tone in his voice that held some form of madness, that seemed ready to come out at the slightest provocation. I could easily see this being the man that would one day demand for the whole city to burn with him inside it, even if I couldn't see him now.

Goddamn baby eyesight.

"He seems to be in good health Your Grace, however it is very strange, I do not recall ever seeing or hearing of a babe making no noise after their birth."

That's my cue, I guess.

I didn't need to do much to make myself cry; it seems that babies are just born with the innate ability. All I had to do was open my mouth and try and scream and voila, a good hearty cry.

I may have taken some vindictive glee in seeing both Aerys and Pycelle flinch after hearing my cries.

After my little show I swiftly quietened down to listen to what was being said around me as I was passed into the arms of my new mother, and to say I was displeased by what I heard was an understatement.

"You are not allowed alone with him at any time woman, he will survive unlike the others. Lord Commander I want you to make sure that my son is watched day and night by the Kingsguard."

I didn't mind having the extra protection, King's Landing was a dangerous place after all. Sure it would make doing some things difficult, as some of the plans I was already trying to formulate would be a bit suspicious and if I had someone watching me at all times, then there was no way I'd be able to get away with them. No, the main problem I had was this crazy prick insinuating that it was my new mother's fault that the death of their other children was her fault. I knew how much my old mum had loved me and would have done anything for me, and I'm pretty sure Rhaella was similar. I definitely wasn't going to have any strong familial relations with Aerys, that was for sure, but I'm pretty certain that was going to be the case anyway.

A yawn then escaped me, being a baby was tiring, give me a break, literally. The last thing I heard before sleep took me was my new mother's voice. "Don't worry Viserys, I'll make sure to always take care of you."

Being a baby was really boring. I mean so boring I'd rather be in quarantine again, at least I had the freedom to move around my own home and not have to suck on some random woman's boobs, which may not have been so bad, I'm not that perverted but I was 19 when I died, leave me alone, except that one, they were my new mum's boobs, and I was not going to be like the Targaryens of the past and enjoy that kind of thing, and two, I had to see Aerys' food taster 'test' them first for poison. Oh yeah, Aerys was that paranoid that someone was going to try and murder me that he thought someone would smother a woman's boobs in poison to do it. If they did, I'd give them points for originality, never heard of anyone else dying that way, I always wanted to be a trailblazer.

I tried to go over plans in my head, seeing as I had nothing else to do, but I was never any good at keeping my thought's on track. Call it weird or whatever, but unless I spoke things out loud or wrote them down, then I just ended up going on massive tangents and completely forgetting what I was originally trying to think of. But nevertheless, I persevered and made some basic preliminary plans.

I also was working on speaking and walking as early as possible. Some people might think that it would be best to progress at the rate a normal child would, so as to not draw attention to myself. Those people are stupid. Reputation can go a long way in the world, I mean just look at Tywin, he's already in control before you meet him just based on his reputation alone. Sure, if I were some commoner then drawing attention like this would be bad, but I'm a fucking prince, what's gonna happen to me if I show myself to be unnaturally gifted and talented? I was going to try and save as many of my family as I can when I'm older, minus Aerys, but the war is coming no matter what I do, Aerys is too mad and I'm only going to be 7 at most, there's not much I can do realistically to stop it. So if I end up having to leave Westeros and then eventually return, who are the people more likely to follow, some random prince that they haven't heard of, or a returning prince that had shown himself to be incredibly intelligent and left a great impression for them to remember me by? I'm already the younger brother of one of the most talented and prodigious people in the history of Westeros, so me being special isn't completely out of the realm of possibility.

Speaking of Rhaegar, I'd seen him several times in my short life already. He was 17 and would often come into my room with Arthur Dayne following, at least that's who I assumed was always with him, and pull out his harp and just start shredding on it, or the medieval equivalent. Basically, what I'm saying is that he's good. Like really good. Like holy shit this dude must have been blessed by Apollo, the Muses, Bragi and Freddie Mercury to be this good. Those are the best parts of my days, when my brother would come to my room and play a song he'd written or an old classic. I couldn't wait till I could speak and teach him some of the bangers that I knew. While I wasn't much of a singer according to others, though I would disagree, I could definitely remember some lyrics and tell them to Rhaegar.

So far I'd have to say that Rhaegar is a great brother, he always make sure to visit every day, and my mother is always in the room, and with my slowly developing eyesight, I could see how happy it made her to see him visiting. This was a problem. It almost would have made things easier if he'd been distant and a dick. Not because I wanted to usurp him or anything, but because Rhaegar was one of the few people that I knew I'd have no way to help survive and me loving him as a brother would hurt that much more when he died, but I'll try and ignore that, besides, a lot can happen in 7 years.

The last couple of months had been even more boring than before. Damn Tywin Lannister celebrating my birth, how dare he, and damn Aerys as well for making me stay in King's Landing! Now I didn't even have Rhaegar's visits to brighten my day. In his absence I had more time to focus on learning to speak and walk. While the muscles in my legs were too weak to walk now, but I was just starting to be able to crawl about, and I felt that was pretty good. Being able to crawl slowly around my crib was some high intensity exercise.

My mother seemed over the moon when I began to crawl a couple of weeks ago. It makes my sense, all her other children, bar Rhaegar, who had lived to this point had been weak and sickly, so me showing how healthy and strong I was at this age must have significantly decreased her worry.

Speaking was coming along more slowly than moving was. Do you have any idea how frustrating it is to know exactly what you want to say and how to say it, but be utterly unable to? Fucking irritating. As annoying as being stuck behind a learner at a traffic light that has already stalled three times, so the lights have gone red again and you have to wait and hope that they don't stall again. Yeah, I've been getting pretty frustrated recently.

I'd managed to achieve incoherent baby babble, which was progress, but it was progress that was a lot slower than I wanted, but Rome wasn't built in a day, so all I can do is keep going, it's not exactly like I've got a lot else to do.

A year had passed since my birth into this world and it was a pretty hectic time in the Red Keep. The Defiance of Duskendale had been going on for about three months now, but that's not the most important thing happening at the moment. It was my birthday, or name day according to the people here.

Despite the King currently being held hostage that was no reason to not celebrate the only prince that had reached their first name day since Rhaegar. In fact, with my 'father' not around, Rhaella had begun to become slightly more confident and had insisted that a celebration be held for me. Rhaegar's support also helped.

I was hoping that a butterfly effect would occur from the differences I'd made and the Aerys would die in Duskendale. Maybe my advanced movement capabilities gave Aerys the belief that his blood was superior and that he could defeat his captors, leading to him accidentally dying, but I didn't have a lot of faith in that happening.

I'd mastered the art of walking several months ago, much to the delight of my family, and was now able to speak a few words at a time. People were already beginning to compare me to Rhaegar just based on this alone, which I considered high praise. What was even greater praise was when I heard Rhaegar disagree with this and say that I was far ahead of him.

Even in my short time with my brother, his love for melancholy was clear to me, but this didn't mean that he couldn't have fun or make jokes, but the weight of a burden only he thinks he knows clearly weighed heavily on him. I wanted to help him but with me only being able to say things like "Rhaegar no sad," in spite of my efforts to speak better, there was only so much I could do.

Even with my clear mastery of the act of moving on only two limbs, and no I wasn't doing handstands everywhere, I was being carried everywhere. It may have had something to do with the time a couple of weeks ago when I was finally allowed to walk next to my mother with Ser Lewyn Martell with us. I just wanted to see how well I could run, it's not my fault that I lost my balance next to some stairs and was only saved thanks to Ser Lewyn catching me. Stupid baby body.

The look on my mother's face instantly made me regret it. One of her children finally growing up strong only for them to die by accident would have been horrendous, and I can only imagine how disappointed 'God' would've been in me. But to be fair to me, I was always pretty active in my past life, so to have my movements be limited for so long had been killing me.

So that's why is was currently being held very securely in the arms of my mother with a group of guards and Prince Lewyn surrounding us. Their legs were like a steel curtain, preventing any sort of escape from being possible. However, why would I want to escape when we were heading to the gardens to celebrate me? Gifts from several lords had been received on my behalf earlier in the Throne Room, we were now on our way to have a private celebration.

It was only going to be my mum, Rhaegar and me. Oh, and Ser Arthur, who was never far from Rhaegar's side. Despite my deficiencies in regard to talking, I think I'd managed to endear myself to most of the Kingsguard, except for Ser Gerold and Jonothor Darry. Ser Gerold may like me, but he was far too professional to tell and spent most of his time with my father. Ser Darry on the other hard was just a dickhead with the personality of Ivan Drago. Also based on his talk with Jaime in the books about not protecting my mother from Aerys, didn't exactly endear him to me. I'd always thought he was a twat, so it's nice to see I was right.

We arrived at the garden to see Rhaegar in a chair with Ser Arthur behind him and Ser Lewyn took his leave, trusting the deadliest of the Kingsguard to be able to protect us from any threats. I began to struggle to get free from my mum at the sight of him, because I knew that she was far more likely to let me go if she thought it was so I could go to my brother, and that small distance to him would still be good practice for my running.

I was put down and instantly began to toddle my way over to Rhaegar as fast as I could. The only thing that I could equate it to is that moment when you've been sitting down in Spoons for a while and had a few drinks and you need to stand up to go to the loo, and all of a sudden it hits you all at once. That's what trying to run as a one year old feels like.

I was swiftly picked up into the arms of my older brother, "Soon you're going to be outrunning even the horses, brother."

"Should I tell the stable master that his services are no longer required then Your Grace?" That's one of the reasons I liked Arthur, he wasn't afraid to joke, even with his apparent 'superiors'. Maybe him being best friends with Rhaegar, no matter what Connington said, for so long gave him the confidence to do so, but even still it was nice as it made him feel less like a guard, despite the huge sword on his waist, and more like just a friend.

"But then what shall the rest of you do Ser, you cannot all be carried on Viserys' back to battle?" My mother pitched in. Everyone chuckled at that. Well the others chuckled; I did my high-pitched baby laugh. Without Aerys here, my mother had become more confident and outgoing. While not a large change, it was still significant and made me hate the man that was my father in this world even more.

The time passed swiftly after that, Rhaegar played a couple of songs on his harp at my insistence and my mum told me some stories of Ser Duncan the Tall. Eventually though, while I was 'playing' with some toys on the floor, the adults began having a more serious discussion.

I now see how Varys' little birds are so successful, no one suspects or expects a small child to be listening or understanding what is being said around them. It reminds of a series I read in my old life, all about a whole organisation of children spies, specifically because no one expected them to be spies.

"The Darklyns are still refusing to give Father back and Tywin will not change the terms." Rhaegar said.

"What is the Lord Hand planning to do?" My mother asked.

"He is currently happy to leave the situation as it is for the time being. I believe that he isn't too upset about Father not being in King's Landing."

"Rhaegar be careful," She looked around anxiously, "you never know who may be listening."

"Mother, I chose this location because we'd be able to see anyone that would wish to hear our conversation and know not to speak of these things." Except for the one year old at their feet that they didn't expect to understand everything they said, not that anything they were saying was news to me.

"Even still Your Grace, it is not best to speak of such clandestine matters too openly." Ser Arthur piped in.

"Of course, you are both correct." Rhaegar took a deep breath, "If this situation continues on for too much longer then I believe that Tywin means to launch a full-frontal assault on Duskendale." Rhaegar let the implications of that statement sink in. "But that will not happen for moons yet."

"What of a replacement for Ser Gwayne, Rhaegar?" Ser Arthur questioned.

I hadn't had much interaction with Ser Gwayne, but what little I had, had given me a good impression of him, so while I wasn't affected much by his passing especially as I knew it would happen, I was still sad to hear about his death.

"I have a few candidates in mind, first and foremost being Ser Oswell Whent. I have met him several times and he is a superb sword and has made it clear to me of his desire to join the order, though I believe he expected to join when Ser Harlan passed, but I don't think he will mind joining early."

"Are you sure of him Rhaegar?" Rhaella said, but I could hear the subtext, would he be loyal to the Targaryens, or Aerys?

"Yes Mother, he will be an honour to the order."

Later that evening as I was being put to bed, I was still thinking about what I'd been told a year ago by 'God'. What was I going to get next year on my birthday? My expectations were pretty high, I mean when you have a higher power that can transport you to another world simply for their own entertainment, you tend to think that they can give you something pretty fucking awesome. I thought I may have heard a chuckle come from somewhere at that, but just passed it off as the wind.

Well I guess I'll find out what it is in one year, and it had better goddamn "crush my expectations" as they'd claimed, otherwise we were going to have words.

The year passed quickly, and day had finally arrived, my second birthday.

The past year had been more eventful than the first, not only in part due to my own increased abilities, but mainly for the last several months, since my father returned from his imprisonment.

I hadn't seen a huge amount of Aerys before he went to Duskendale, but from what I had seen, he had his outbursts and moments, but he was not completely insane, just mostly. Now though, people that compared Joffrey to him had no idea. Yes, Joffrey was insane, but Aerys was on a whole different level of insanity. His hair and nails had started growing long and he refused to let anyone touch them, he always kept at least two members of the Kingsguard close, and the burnings had begun.

While he was not burning anyone willy nilly yet, he had begun to burn criminals. I have not personally seen any of them, but the servants and maids talk when they think I can't hear them. My mother and brother have tried their best to shield me from it, even though I haven't gone out of my way to hear about it, and I most certainly do not want to ever see it happen, thank you very much. However, my father has begun to take more of an interest in me recently, due to his paranoia making him believe that Rhaegar plotted with Tywin, hoping he would die in Duskendale. Obviously, this isn't true, I mean Rhaegar along with everyone else wasn't too upset about Aerys being captured, but he wasn't plotting for him to die, I'm pretty sure.

I've been progressing pretty well myself, I could now walk without making a fool of myself, and speak decently well, even though even to my ears it sounded ridiculous what I was saying with my ludicrously high-pitched and babyish voice. I'm surprised anyone can hear me and the dogs don't start barking when I speak it's so high.

I spent a lot of my time following Rhaegar to the library, as my own lessons with a maester hadn't begun yet. Actually reading about my ancestors as people, rather than just a fictional character on a wiki page, filled me with excitement, as well as reading about all the heroes and lords of the past. My love of reading and my aptitude for it at such a young age, had brought the comparisons to my older brother out even more, with some even whispering that I was even more prodigious than him. I tried not to feel too proud at that considering they were comparing me with the mind of a 19-year-old to Rhaegar as a young child.

My father was not particularly happy at all the time I was spending with my brother and began to take more of an interest in me, much to my chagrin. He kept trying to preach to me about the greatness of the Targaryens and how we were superior to everyone else and all that jazz. I just followed the one piece of advice that's never failed me. "Smile and wave boys, smile and wave."

Me not being even two, despite my intelligence, meant that after his superiority rant, Aerys would soon get bored of me, but I'm sure once I got older these talks of ours would only increase in consistency and length, something I was dreading.

Suddenly, I felt and heard an earth-shaking crash. I leapt out of bed and ran to my window overlooking the courtyard. Smoke and dust were billowing all around, with the occasional flash of what looked like lightning, making it hard to make out what was going on. I could hear people panicking and shouting down below but could still not make out what happened.

Slowly, the dust and panic began to subside leaving the courtyard visible as what had caused the commotion became visible to everyone.

Holy shit. That's some birthday present.

There in the middle of the courtyard, dug into the rock at the bottom, was the hammer to end all hammers.